Thursday, 19 July 2012

As we already briefed all our readers at Wheel-O-Mania about the recent violence which started yesterday afternoon, there is some major action happening at the Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant. It has now been reported that in the scuffle between the management and the workers 1 person has been reported to be dead of the burn injuries and nearly 40 have been injured.

Workers stalled production and also burnt a few cars parked outside the factory after the Maruti administration suspended a worker from the quality department in the afternoon after an alleged altercation he had with the managerial staff. The newly-registered workers' union at the Manesar plant - Maruti Suzuki Workers' Union (MSWU) - that took over in March this year, demanded immediate revocation of the suspension order and prevented management executives from leaving the factory premises.

The workers of the morning shift started a sit-in protest with workers comprising permanent and on-contract roster demanding an immediate decision from the company. Anticipating violence, Maruti Suzuki management called in police to control the situation. By evening, the workers protest turned violent. According to the company statement, around half a dozen officials were seriously injured.

"After suspending the worker who had misbehaved with his supervisor on the shop-floor today, the MSWU functionaries insisted that company officials should not leave the premises unless the issue was resolved. When management executives tried to negotiate, the workers turned violent and many managerial staff were injured," a senior Maruti executive said. The Haryana police had to cane charge the workers to evict them from the factory and by the time of going to the press, over 3,000 workers were moved out of the Manesar plant. Sources informed there has been considerable damage inside the Manesar unit. Parked vehicles were set on fire by workers.

Maruti suffered losses last year when workers had gone on an indefinite strike to form an independent union at the same plant. While the company suffered a production loss of about 80,000 cars in the 59 days of strike, the direct revenue losses were pegged at 2,500 crore in the last fiscal year.